Little Drops from Heaven

Behta hai mann kahin, kahan jaante nahin
Koi rok le yahin...
Bhaage re mann kahin
Aage ye mann chala
Jaane kidhar jaanu na aaaa

- Chameli (2003)

I mentioned about an year ago, rains bring out the romantic in me. This time the romantic me brought the rains <blush, blush>.
I don't know why but since Friday, I have been in a mushy mood. Which means Friday night I saw "While You Were Sleeping", a 1995 Rom-Com, and then it rained all Saturday; and so I watched "The Wedding Date", a 2005 Rom-Com on Saturday night.

Well I have also been playing the "Love" playlist on my laptop, on the auto-mode, but let's not go there.

So, "While You Were Sleeping" is a Sandra Bullock movie, and like Rajesh Koothrapalli says, "she is great in everything". It's a simple story of a plain Jane who has no one and has a huge crush on this guy she sees everyday for about 15 minutes to and fro on the train station. One (un)fortunate day, he meets with an accident, she saves him, gets him admitted to a hospital and through a misunderstanding, people take her to be the guy's fiancee.
It's a classic comedy of errors, and what with the movie's setting as Christmas and New Year's week, a lot of funny family stuff happens, while the guy is in a coma. The movie has a sweet and lovable feel to it and my favorite setting of the holiday season.

"The Wedding Date" is a movie full of beautiful people. I mean beautiful-looking. Gorgeous! There's Dermont Mulroney (yes, F.R.I.E.N.D.S.' guest star, Gavin Mitchell, Rachel's co-worker and balcony kisser from season 9). There's Debra Messing, who looks just so exquisite. There's Amy Adams, whose only other movie I have seen is American Hustle, another movie full of great-looking people.

It's a story of Kat, whose sister is getting married in London. Kat hires a "date" so that her family doesn't think she's miserable after her much talked about breakup with her ex. This movie is shot in England- a beautiful country (-from what I've seen in the various movies. I really want to visit Yorkshire someday).

In the first movie, the girl and the guy (not the coma guy, spoiler) become really good friends while taking a walk in the snow. In the latter, they start liking each other in various moments here and there. Enough appetite for the mushy me. While there's snow in case of Sandra Bullock, it's rain for Debra Messing. The way I see it, both fall in love when there are little drops of heaven, pouring down on them. :-)

Of science and imagination

Yes, this is about Nolan's latest. It's also about Disney's latest. This Saturday, I saw two movies; both awesome. Interstellar and Big Hero 6.

Interstellar is about the future where our planet has literally turned to dust and schools have rubbished achievements like Apollo Space Mission to keep the last generation of human population in dark about the glorious past and the inglorious past that resulted in this present. While many of my friends (all of them engineers) are laughing at the walking-in-and-out-of-black-hole-feat that Nolan makes

Matthew McConaughey achieve, I see a powerful work of imagery excellently portrayed on-screen.

The story also ticks "a world with more than three dimensions" off my bucket list. Nolan loyalists

voice their disappointments about implausible track of the movie only because they expect absolute 

logic from the master filmmaker. Agreed. But since my knowledge about the black holes and laws

governing it are next to nil, I saw the movie as a story, and in stories there is no need to adhere to any

laws. Full marks to Interstellar. 

Big Hero 6 is a 3D cartoon film about a naughty genius who is astray until his good boy elder brother

dedicated to help the humankind dies. Then the genius uses his knowledge of robotics to avenge the 

death and the story is classic good v/s evil. Now, the lead robot Baymax is a balloon-like bot, made 

of carbon fiber, which is an extremely strong and light polymer used in aerospace auto-motives. 

This, in a way, validates the incredible amount of flying sequences this fat bot does in most of the 

second half. The use of laser beam to shred army of micro-bots and use of liquid metal embrittlement 

aide the young hero and his gang in their victory. Now considering the fact that the movie was

mostly watched by primary-school kids, like my cousin with whom I watched it, & most importantly

is a cartoon, use of science is not really needed. Thus the movie aces with kids despite a few technical

terms thrown here and there. And so, full marks to this movie too. 

JJJ

My 4 walls in many homes

Jayalalithaa's one-rupee idlis now in Delhi

The food stall has been opened at the Tamil Nadu Bhavan as part of Pongal celebrations 

and will serve South Indian food - idlis at Re one and lemon-rice and sambhar-rice at Rs. 5 

- till January 14.

For a person, who has lived in many different cities and has attended many different schools has had many different homes. For me, the number is two and a half.

Growing up In Delhi, With all the relatives- my first home. The most loved home. With fun-filled weekends at India Gate.The school where I had so many friends in teachers and class-mates and non class-mates and the choir group (yeah, I used to sing!) and the dramatics club (I was either the lead or the narrator) and the picnics- the last one at the Appu Ghar and the Garden of Five Senses. Movies at the Liberty. The Auto-Expo: little me in little leather jackets and leather skirts (LOL but true), with my cousins checking out the chic new cars, where I saw the first-ever human being with green eyes and wearing braces! 

Any news where Delhi comes up, I read/watch the whole of it. January 13 always means Lohri and popcorns and winter sweets (gud and moongfali ki patti, my favorite) around bonfire with LOUD music (LOUD is a must).

Middle school onwards, I have to call Ahmedabad my home. After years of being popular in school, it was crazy to be the new gal in school. Well, fortunately for me, there were four more new gals and we all naturally became best buddies. Still, the politics and hate-games were hard to endure. For instance,no one would name me for the upcoming Creative Writing contest because the school already had a Miss Her Pen Is Magic. But, mom-dad always know how to cheer their little Bollywood buff: Drive-In Cinema. Plus, this city has lakes! Plural. The food is sweet, but I have grown to like it. Although I have been into books since always, it is here that I first stumbled across the Crosswords . And till now shopping meant Karol Bagh, but Ahmedabad has so many malls. All around my house. 

No, this is the most loved home. Teenage and consumerism have kicked in! January 14 is when everyone, all the neighbours and the neighbouring societies are up on the terrace, flying kites and eating chikki (which, by the way, is gud and moongfali ki patti).

My half home is my college. My hostel. Where I have seen 3 batches of seniors. 3 batches of juniors. Plus 1 killer batch- mine. Here, we have a Lake-view and a bridge-over-the-river view and the quintessential Galla view-where I drink tea and munch on Vada Pav or an occasional locho. People smoke. I don't care, only try to avoid inhaling it. We have a Narmad Library- for the likes of me. The place has malls and McDonalds' and Subway and KFC and the latest, the Barbeque Nation. I don't care, we eat in our Hostel Mess- it's really good. No sarcasm. 

January 13 means bunking the classes and heading home. January 14 means kite fights. January 15 means boarding trains back to college.

That's all. Happy Lohri. Happy Uttarayan. To my Andhra friends, Happy Sakranti. To the scientists, Happy Solar Transition. Spring is coming (which means nothing here, but in Delhi, the pretty flowers bloom. I suddenly want to visit the Mughal Gardens.)